Last week I had the wonderful honor of being a presenter in the Cisco Networking Academy Find Yourself in The Future Series. To date this series has attracted over 9000 live attendees, which is testament to the extremely high levels of interest in technology careers in this region as well as the extraordinary efforts of the APAC marketing team. One figure blew me away in particular: 70% of attendees are interested in pursuing careers in cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity is an incredibly exciting field. It draws in some of the most talented technologists and brainiacs and in many ways cybersecurity is similar to a game of chess. It’s about anticipating and staying ahead of your opponent. It’s also about learning to think like the bad guys except that he patterns are anything but predictable and then doing good. And, that feeling of contributing to the good of humankind is intensely gratifying.

Cybersecurity is such a diverse field and it intersects with just about every area of technology and even behavioral sciences. And, it’s this intersection that will enable students to pursue their dream careers in cybersecurity. Imagine a career in cybersecurity that intersects with medicine. Today people could die from hackers sending fatal doses to hospital drug pumps and you might have a vision for solving this life-threatening problem. In my work one of my goals is to provide our chidren a safe, digital playground. This combines my interest for education with privacy and digital safety.

On last week’s presentation I suggested students take the following steps to achieving their dream careers. And, it’s these very steps that have been major enablers in my career too.

Find an area of cyber security that is particularly compelling and exciting to you. Or find the intersection of cybersecurity with another field and think of ways that you could change or influence the industry.

Research that area on the web and learn as much as you can about it.

Explore possibilities of being an intern in an organization that is pursuing innovative directions that coincide with your interests.

Find a mentor. Mentors both help you grow your career as well as help you navigate a workplace. If you can find a way to help the person who is mentoring you, for example, research a new area, then you become very valuable to your mentor too.

Finally, think about your career in a series of phases. What you might start out doing may be very different to what you do in 20 years from now. So think about companies that allow you to evolve and career paths that are flexible.

We live in an increasingly insecure digital world. The upside is that that cybersecurity will continue to be a much sought after skillset in the workforce. And, if I can help you pursue your dream career in cybersecurity, please reach out to me and if you missed the session you can view the recording on YouTube.

If you’re an experienced malware reverse engineer, exploit developer, response specialist, intel analyst, or looking to start your career in security, Talos might be the place for you. We have a number of positions open in Columbia, Maryland; Austin, Texas; San Jose, California; and San Francisco, California. If you are open to relocation to one of those areas, have the right skills, and share some of our beliefs below then applying for one of our numerous positions might be for you.

For those not familiar with Talos, it is Cisco’s premier Threat Intelligence organization that supports all of Cisco’s security portfolio. Detecting and preventing threats that target Cisco customers is our job, and given Cisco’s security footprint and breadth of product portfolio we can engage those threats from Cloud to Core.

It does however, take a special type of individual to join Talos, so give the list below a look and see if your beliefs match up with our distinctive culture. Read More »

This article was originally published on Cisco’s internal employee news site, Cisco Employee Connection.

The Internet of Everything is beginning to transform every aspect of our lives. Can we still change this world for the better by connecting people, data, process and things?

Corporate Affairs SVP Tae Yoo says, “More than ever.”

“As the Internet of Everything takes hold, our networked technology is effecting more dramatic and longer-lasting change in people’s lives,” Tae says. “We find the world’s best social innovators. And then we give them the tools and resources to expand and accelerate their fine work.”

Take two of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) community partners that are making significant progress against math illiteracy and global poverty. One, MIND Research Institute, is helping U.S. schoolchildren improve their math skills for future job success. The other, Digital Divide Data, is helping underserved youth in Kenya, Cambodia, and Laos develop technology skills for a lifetime of employment.

With students and teachers heading back to school, I’ve been thinking about when attended high school and college. For me, collaboration meant getting together with study groups, phone calls for homework help and office hours with teachers. For my two children – one a college junior and one college freshman – I have seen streaming video, text messages and online sessions with educators thousands of miles away turn our kitchen table into a classroom with a simple click of a button.

Beyond convenience and the overwhelming coolness factor of being able to connect virtually with teachers and classmates, I often wonder how technology will impact education and careers in the long run. Collaboration software is pervasive on many campuses, transforming the learning process, academic research and the relationship between students and instructors. With the advent of BYOD and mobile technology, collaboration is even becoming more accessible. Will the integration of collaboration in their education translate into career skills?

Today on Triple Pundit, Leon Kaye writes about the challenges Saudi Arabian women face in finding meaningful employment, and how the Cisco Networking Academy program is helping to create more opportunities for them. Of the nearly 17,000 Networking Academy students in Saudi Arabia, 42 percent are women.

Kaye writes:

“More women in Saudi Arabia are able to complete higher education, but they still have a difficult time finding gainful employment. Depending on the source cited, as much as 34 percent of Saudi women are unemployed, five times the unemployment of men in this nation of 28 million.

Cisco is one company working to increase professional opportunities for women under the constraints Saudi society imposes on anyone living and working in the country. Throughout the Middle East, Cisco has worked with universities, technical colleges and education ministries to embed technical training within these schools’ curricula. The results could add up to a more technically-savvy workforce, better jobs for women and more long-term business opportunities for the Silicon Valley-based networking equipment giant.”

More than 85 percent of the female graduates from the Cisco Networking Academy program at Effat University in Saudi Arabia have either found jobs or decided to pursue advanced degrees.

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